


Slow Dancing in the Dark

by Precari



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bittersweet Ending, F/M, i guess kataang fans can read this, maybe a bit oc, not really about dancing, ultimately zutara in nature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25834726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Precari/pseuds/Precari
Summary: “C-could I have this dance?”Or the one where Zuko confronts his feelings about a certain Southern Water Tribe girl during his coronation ball...(late prompt response to Day 5: Hesitancy)
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36
Collections: Zutara Week 2020





	Slow Dancing in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> loosely inspired by the song slow dancing in the dark by joji. Check it out, it's great.

After half an hour of hiding outside from his own coronation ball, Fire Lord Zuko had become unsure of the reason why he was doing so. He sat outside, leaning behind one of the many pillars holding the castle, his legs occasionally swinging out from the edge of the deck.

He had at first told himself that he was hiding from Sokka, who had so maturely chased after him with his boomerang when Zuko had attested that stewed sea prunes were about the worst thing ever. That he simply did not wish to die from Sokka’s rage before the first day of the rest of his life.

And who would blame him?

After all, Sokka had exhibited the eyes of someone drunk on cactus juice as well as the gait of an enraged otter-penguin.

But was that really the reason why? Somehow, the whole incident had paled in comparison to what was currently on his mind.

Of course, the easiest thing to say was that he was just feeling the tremendous, almost boulder-like pressure from becoming Fire Lord.

Because of this, he just could not enjoy the coronation ball, despite its light-hearted atmosphere that came naturally after the war’s end. 

But even that could not hold a flame, much less a wildfire, to what was taking up his heart’s attention.

He raised his head to stare at the moon, in all its fullness.

During their trip to Boiling Rock, Sokka had told him about Yue, about how their romance was completely doomed from the start with her “arranged marriage with that jerk Hahn” and that her becoming the moon had simply sealed its “doomedness”, so to quote.

_“And I know it’s weird that I’m talking about Yue when like we’re going to the most secure prison to break out my dad and possibly my girlfriend,” Sokka had confided to the older boy, “but I just can’t help but long to see Yue again whenever there’s a full moon out. That makes sense, right? I’m not crazy… am I?”_

Back then, Zuko could only offer a curt nod and a quick verbal attempt at consolation.

After all, what could he have said to ever fix the inevitable pain of heartbreak? What could he have done to expunge Sokka’s grief-stricken eyes?

Now, more than ever, Zuko could only ponder if his inability to relate then was the reason why he felt the debilitating pain of his love’s “doomedness” so often.

For the answer to that question, he only had ~~Yue~~ the moon to confide to.

“At least you liked him. I don’t even know if she likes me,” Zuko whispered, trusting that the wind would be the only outside eavesdropper.

Suddenly, he felt something like a whip tap his right shoulder.

He snapped his head to the right to find himself face to face with **her**.

Any sparks of fire that may have been conjured from his surprise simply faded into oblivion.

Why, out of all people, out of everyone in the world, did it have to be **her** to find him?

He quickly turned away to hide the blush from his face and felt almost comatose in shock.

Seeing **her** illuminated in the moonlight like that was a terrible mistake. She was always stunning, no questions asked but the moon was acting very mischievous tonight. It was as if the moon decided to play matchmaker and adorn **her** in a glimmer, a luster, that no one else could replicate.

Zuko really hated Yue by now.

Although…

“ **She** certainly does rise with the moon”, thought Zuko before intensely wincing through all of his memories battling **her** , injuring **her** , almost killing **her**.

Images of fire suffocating **her** flooded his head before it led him to remember the two fish circling around each other in the Spirit Oasis, Tui and La.

“Zuko!”

His shoulders tensed, now rigid like metal, from her voice. Did he have to talk to her alone like this?

After some hesitation, Zuko lifted himself from the deck’s edge to stand up.

He scratched his neck before squeaking out a “Hey. What’s going on?”

Her face was twisted in concern and … something unfamiliar. Could it be-no, it couldn’t have been.

She put her hands on her hips. “You. You ran from the ballroom a while ago, and everyone’s been wondering about you. Sokka, last time I checked, was crying for your forgiveness, although he’s drunk out of his mind.”

Zuko, although not surprised, found himself looking at her in bewilderment. “Tell him I accept his apology?”

“I wasn’t finished.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Your girlfriend, Mai I think her name was, looked pretty concerned and started taking a bunch of fruit tarts from the banquet table.”

Despite his apathy toward his relationship with her, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s Mai, alright.”

For a split second, there was that odd look on her face again, before it was replaced with a look of concern.

“Are you alright though? I know it must be hard having to be the next Fire Lord, but why did you run away like that?”

He shifted his head to stare at the floor. “I… I don’t know.”

Then the most perplexing thing happened.

Perhaps it was the change of music, but Zuko then felt a sudden urge, a calling, to attempt something he shouldn’t.

He stepped toward her, holding his left hand out. “C-could I have this dance?”

Oh Agni, what was he doing?

Zuko tried his best to stay calm, stay **cool** even, but everyone knows that firebenders can never be **cool**. His mind was a raging inferno, begging him not to mess this up, not to destroy any more friendships. Worst of all, he felt his gold eyes melting like candle wax from her cool blue ones.

For a millisecond, he glimpsed pure shock register and flood her face before she laughed a bit too awkwardly and a bit too loudly.

“Yes, that makes complete sense. Dance to music you can barely hear, let alone know is playing,” she jested, though a tint of hope filtered through the night air.

Zuko retreated his hand, shrugging his shoulders as he stepped back.

“That’s fine. It was just a last dance.”

She then stepped out, walking towards him. Somehow, he had kept his eye contact with her despite her beauty being like the glare of the sun.

She was so close now, just a foot away in fact. He could brush through her hair with his fingers, cup her face and tell her. Maybe he could bring her close to a hug and perhaps-no, stop.

It was just the moon talking.

In his internal dilemma, she intertwined her rough-edged fingers with his. Her other hand rested on his right shoulder, her fingers cascading down softly.

In instinct, he reached and settled his right hand on her waist, so undeniably soft against his touch. 

She looked up to him, a soft beam to her smile. “I’d be honored to dance with you.”

In no time, they had gotten the rhythm of slow waltzing, no matter how messy it was. It was their own simple version they could follow, and that in itself was powerful art.

They soon quicken the pace- almost covering the entire deck, in fact, while passing through a swirl of songs.

They switched leads frequently. They circled each other like a fluid yin and yang.

Zuko swore their hearts were in sync, beating through their palm sweat as one.

The world to him now felt less cold and barren. Instead, a bubble of warmth had perforated his being, even if they had nothing to say. Speaking wasn’t needed, but even if it wasn’t, he could live with silence.

After all, it was just them, for one second in the world.

And wasn’t that enough for him?

They were swaying now through the dark corridors. She had nuzzled up against his chest, curls and all.

Although Zuko relished this moment, a bunch of thoughts clouded his bliss.

During their brief time together, could she have been imagining someone else instead? Perhaps a boy around her age who had recently-

No, Zuko couldn’t bear to think about it, but he kept thinking about their steady dynamic.

How was she so close yet he could not touch her? Was it always like this?

He then reached another troubling thought: Were they Tui and La, destined for doom even if, on the rare chance **she** liked him no matter the pains, the tribulations, the betrayals he caused her to go through?

He gazed at the moon, not willing to look at her.

“So uh,” he cleared his throat, “I guess you’re leaving after this, huh?”

“Yeah. Sokka and Suki are moving back home for a little while. Hopefully Sokka doesn’t kill Grandpa Pakku until after the first week.”

“Well uh what about you? Are you going back home or are you travelling for a while?”

The moonlight shined on her to reveal her blushing.

Oh.

Oh.

Zuko tried to smile, but he felt his jaw clenched, nevertheless.

“You know how he gets. Aang might get worried, and I really don’t want him to uh, you know...”

“Where are you and Aang going to next?”

“Aang and I will probably go to the Earth Nation for negotiations at Ba Sing Se…”

She trailed off, suddenly interested in Zuko’s facial scar.

“But we don’t need to talk about this,” she sputtered. “It’s not important. Not that it’s not important, I mean. Well, you know what I mean, I think.”

After taking a deep breath, she put her hand on his shoulder. “I know I’ve said this before, but thank you for-just thank you.”

He simply stared at her before shaking his head in understanding. “No problem.” He hesitated before adding, “I would have done the same thing for anyone.”

He felt an instant surge of regret as he asked her, “Hey, will you ever be coming back?”

“Of course we’d come back!” She said a little too loudly. In response, Zuko snorted a bit too loudly, his consequence from knowing her too well. That smile, whether she knew it or not, hid too many white and black lies.

He shook his head. “I’ll miss you.”

Her response came almost instantaneously. “I’ll miss you too.”

She reached for his scar, the space around his left eye, and felt around it.

He interlocked his fingers around hers and squeezed her hand.

She held a knowing glance, but the building pressure from her fingers implied curiosity.

Could it have been longing?

They stared in silence for a while, focused only the other’s breath intake. Zuko felt his world spinning, now orbiting around her.

He lowered his head so that their foreheads would touch. His breath felt shaky.

He, however, felt as if he could live from simply breathing in her moon peach breath forever.

Still, his lips hovered around her mouth before they grazed against her lips. Soft and irresistible, he was in a daze. He steadily pressed his mouth on hers, feeling the subtle touch of reciprocity.

There was no such thing as yin and yang anymore.

They became grey, moonlight amongst the stars.

He felt catalytic, the feeling of having kissed her being more euphoric and just … grander than in his dreams.

How could it be, then, that pure bliss can easily be tainted and defiled by guilt?

Zuko broke himself off, no matter how mesmerized he was around her.

As he did so, he felt the world, everything really, spin. He felt an emotional separation that bordered on the physical: a yin and yang no longer entangled together.

“Katara!”

Agni.

Zuko clenched his fist to stifle any instinct to firebend. Although Zuko had grown to deeply admire and adore **him** beyond what destiny called Zuko to do, he just couldn’t stand **him** when **he** was around Katara, all…all. Zuko shook his head.

He had to get over this feeling sometime.

Zuko saw her wince for a millisecond before donning a fake smile and sprinting towards Aang with her arms open.

And although Zuko knew he was the one to back away, he couldn’t help but feel dread, as if some sort of shift has occurred.

It just felt so sudden, like the Sun leaving the Moon or the silent hush of a campfire’s end revealing a cold and dark world. 

“Aang!” shouted Katara.

When she finally reached the bald-headed boy in question, she embraced him tightly. Aang, however, did not.

Aang faced Zuko, with that look of betrayal and explosive anger. Just almost like in Ba Sing Se…

Zuko grimaced, praying to Agni that Aang wouldn’t enter the Avatar State.

When Katara pulled back, Aang tried to hide his anger with a very exaggerated smile, even for Aang’s own standards.

“Katara, where were you? I miss you, **sweetie** ,” Aang cooed before kissing her in a self-satisfied manner. His eyes closed, her eyes open- wait her eyes were open?

Forget it; it doesn’t matter.

Zuko’s insides churned and tightened. A storm was brewing in his head, sucking all the energy he wanted to use to run away.

Suddenly he understood why he hid in the first place.

Aang soon broke off the kiss.

“Don’t worry Zuko! I was looking for you too!” Aang said this with such pep that Zuko couldn’t bear to look at him.

Aang did notice. “Are you okay, Zuko?”

“Uh-oh! Yeah. I’m just thinking about you know, being Fire Lord. Something like that. Yeah.”

Aang raised an eyebrow. “If you say so. But if you ever need me, just let me know. I’ll always be right there.”

Lies. All lies.

Aang and Katara started walking back to the ballroom. Aang turned his head briefly.

“You’re coming back in, right?” asked Aang.

Zuko attempted to smile. “Yeah. I’ll be right there.”

He paused before adding, “Good luck out there.”

Aang nodded in approval before turning back and interlocking his hand with Katara’s.

Zuko, meanwhile, felt frozen in place. He could only stand there, barely breathing and his heart plummeting.

Why was he making it such a big deal out of this?

After all, he couldn’t have made her smile the way Aang could.

Was he even a viable competitor in the first place, if he was anything to her at all than a former enemy?

It was that very moment that he saw something life changing. It was then that he believed to have seen Katara looked behind herself to see him, with that exact same look of heartbreak on her face like Sokka’s.

It was then that he realized that that he would always wait for her. Always.

Was there ever going to be a chance or reciprocation? Probably not.

But who knows?

Maybe she would come back. A good strong maybe.

But for now, it was just him and the moon, wishing to rewind before the first day of the rest of his life to have more than one “last dance”.

**Author's Note:**

> this is what i thought would be kind of realistic to the show. as much as i like zutara, i think it would've been weird if any new couple was shoehorned in at the last minute in the finale. 
> 
> i tried my best not to make aang look inherently like the bad guy, because he isn't. He's like a cinnamon roll lol.  
> also awkward zuko made an appearance! hopefully zuko or katara isn't too ooc in here as well.
> 
> but you guys get to tell me that!  
> ya'll can tell me if it sucks, if it's too ooc, or both. so please be nice and send me constructive stuff. i actually cannot tell if i write well. it's "really unclear" to me.


End file.
